Admit You Love Me: A Secret Baby Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 2) Read online

  He walked up to our little booth with two drinks. I smiled when I saw his selection.

  “Scotch,” I said.

  He grinned, handing me my tumbler. “You seemed to like it enough last time we were together.”

  The last time we were together I was drinking to calm my nerves because I was with the stranger who had won me in a card game. It had worked though. Truth be told I didn’t need that much convincing to go to bed with him. I smiled at the memory.

  “You saw how quickly I got drunk that time. Are you hoping for a repeat performance?”

  “Hoping? No. But I will welcome one.”

  We laughed. I didn't know what it was. It was just so easy with him. I didn’t have to think. There was no pretense to him. I didn't have to act like someone else to try and impress him. He took a swig of his drink.

  “So, is the Baron about?”

  I took a larger, more deliberate pull of mine. “No, he isn't.”

  “I'm glad to hear that.”

  I chuckled. He didn't know the half of it. “Why do you say that?”

  “I don't have to remind you what happened the last time the two of you were at a casino together, do I?”

  You could cut the sexual tension with a knife. He remembered just as well as I did what happened between us last time we were both at a casino. I couldn't believe the attraction was this strong even after all this time. We didn't even need my husband around to get us in the same room together this time. I was here on official business, but this man was distracting me.

  “No, you don't.” Because he's dead, I didn't add. It was clear that he didn’t know already, otherwise, he would have offered condolences. On the other hand, I really didn’t want to discuss my husband when I was talking to Mr. Enigmatic again for the first time in five years. The man was dead and even though he was the source of all my problems, he didn’t deserve half the attention he was still getting from me. I was here to ask for something specific, but I was actually having fun; something I had deprived myself of because of the money issues for such a long time now that I almost forgot what it felt like. Talking about Russell would ruin the mood immediately.

  “If I was you, I wouldn't be caught dead in a casino.”

  “Oh, come on. You have one bad night and you never come back?”

  “I know you did not just refer to what happened between us as a bad night,” he said.

  I laughed and blushed. “You know what I mean. Can’t I just enjoy the games like everyone else here?”

  “He raised a brow looking at me. If you're here to play, then why don't you play with me? Hearts, wasn't it?”

  3

  Niall

  I watched her throw back the rest of her drink, and then she smiled at me.

  “Absolutely. Why not?”

  Perfect. I told her to stay put and went to the bar and asked for a deck of cards.

  “Shall we?” I asked her, walking back to our little table with the cards. She raised an eyebrow. I motioned to a table that was off to the corner, dimly lit, semi-private where we could pretend it was just the two of us.

  “We don't have to play here. I can beat you at any one of these tables,” she said with a grin. I laughed at that. It wasn't so much the playing that I wanted to do with her. After all this time, I was drawn to her. I'd sit that any one of these tables and just listen to her talk about what had been going on in her life since we last met. I just wanted to spend time with her, it didn't matter so much whether we were playing cards or not.

  “We’ll see,” I said.

  We sat at our little corner table and got comfortable. I pruned the deck, taking out the two of diamonds and the two of clubs and then dealt both of us ten cards each. She took the cards and shuffled them in her hands.

  “Just a warning before we start. I spent almost every summer between age seven and eighteen playing Hearts with my Aunt Titania.”

  I laughed. “Oh, is that a threat then?”

  She was grinning. “Yes, it is. You are going to lose.”

  Good. I wanted to. I had no idea that the Baroness was as big a gambler as her husband. All right, maybe not as big a gambler, but it was a nice surprise that she liked to play cards. I liked that she thought she was so good that she was going to beat me. I would have loved to give her the pleasure of beating me.

  “Is that so? In that case, how about we make things interesting?”

  She seemed to hesitate for a bit. Perfect. You cocked it up Niall. She was still a married woman no matter what had happened between us five years before. She probably thought I was hitting on her. I couldn't help it when what came out of my mouth sounded like flirtation. It was. I would cop to that immediately. I was disastrously attracted to her, but I didn't want to scare her away.

  Just then, she nodded and gave me a small smile. “Sure. Let’s.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded again. “I'm always ready to make things interesting.”

  There she was. I smiled seeing a glimmer of the woman who had been in my hotel suite five years ago. I felt like any other woman in her position, traded off by their husband to a complete stranger would react with tears. They would have been a crying heap in my hotel room, angry, indignant and humiliated that her husband would do something like that, but ultimately powerless to stop him.

  The Baroness didn't cry. She took matters into her own hands. I didn't know whether the Baron knew what we got up to that night, but sleeping with the man that your mad husband handed you over to in a card game seemed like the best kind of revenge. She was strong. She was proud and she didn't let people mess with her. She was married to an absolute knobhead but she was holding her own.

  I needed to slow down. She wanted to play cards with me. This wasn't going to be a repeat of that night just because we were seeing each other again. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a stack of chips. I placed it on the table. She did the same, reaching into her clutch and pulling out her own stack.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Let's go.”

  We started to play. She wasn't kidding when she said she was good at this game. All those summers playing with Aunt Titania had paid off. I watched her win my small stack of chips with some satisfaction. I never lost but that was my problem. I needed to do it more. The way things were looking, the Baroness was going to clean me out tonight.

  “I told you, you were going to lose.”

  “I believed you,” I told her. “I don't suppose you want to stop?”

  “Is this you begging me for mercy?” she asked.

  “Well, I don't have any more chips.” She made an exaggerated sad face.

  “Oh no. Now I can't run you into the dirt like I want to,” she said. I laughed and reached into my pocket. I didn't typically use cash, only when I was gambling. I took the clip of money that I’d gotten exchanged in New York and took out five crisp fifty-pound bills. I looked at her. She was staring at the cash like I had just pulled out a gun.

  “What? Not enough?”

  She shook her head and smiled at me. “I'm not going to tell you how badly you should lose to me. I feel like you should be able to make that decision yourself.”

  I laughed. “How diplomatic,” I said, adding to the stack.

  We played again and again; she was beating me. The clip in my pocket was getting lighter and lighter. I loved it. This was what I looked for whenever I walked into a casino. Money had been the best and worst thing in my life. I liked to see it leave. Maybe it would end up with someone who made better use of it than I would.

  That said, however, I was running out of cash and I had no more chips. I watched her make a tidy little pile of her winnings on the table next to her laughing, like a little girl. This was fun for her. Not in the masochistic way that it was fun for me but honest fun. What was that, I thought. Was the Baron a bore? Well, that went without saying but couldn’t she still get out there and have fun even though she was with him?

  Again, probably not. I knew how
one-dimensional and shallow the social lives of the wealthy and connected could be. I had lived through a lifetime of it before liberating myself and it still happened from time to time when I spent too much time with family. I was having fun too. Despite the circumstances that had brought me out here to London and the impending meeting with my father, I was glad that I came. It was worth it to be here losing my money to the beauty I had been fantasizing about for the last five years.

  We played again and it turned out that I spoke too soon. My hand was good. Shit. My stomach sunk. We kept going and it didn’t change. I didn’t want to stop though. I was already out of cash but stopping would mean the Baroness wouldn’t have a reason to stay here with me anymore. The game was all that was keeping her sat there. I had to do something.

  I unlatched the Rolex on my wrist and tossed it onto the table. The Baroness looked shocked.

  “Very nice,” she said, fingering the piece. What is it worth in chips?”

  “Well, it cost me thirty thousand pounds,” I said. Her eyes widened.

  “Are you sure you want to put it on the line? It’s worth more than the entire pot already,” she said. Had I overplayed my hand? Why was she so reluctant? I watched her take a deep breath and add the watch to the pot.

  “Ready to play?” I asked. She nodded. I watched her to see any signs of reluctance. I didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do. It was starting to feel like a repeat of the last time we were in a casino together when her husband lost her to me. I did my best to play fast and loose but it didn’t work. I ended up winning the pot.

  “Christ,” she said. She buried her face in her hands. I frowned. I thought we were having fun. We were playing real money and I threw the watch in, but I thought she was rich enough to take the loss if it came to that. I didn’t win on purpose, but I didn’t think the loss would mean anything to her. Surely, she was solvent enough to take the hit. She looked up, laughing a little, running her hands through her hair.

  “I’ll be bringing this up with Aunt Titania,” she said. “You’ve cleaned me out.”

  “It sounds like you aren’t done yet.”

  She propped her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “One more hand. Double or nothing.”

  “You have nothing to double with, love,” I said.

  “That’s not true.” She leaned in closer. “If I lose, you get a repeat of what happened the last night we were together. That’s got to be worth what’s in the pile. I lose and I’m yours. You lose and I get the pot.”

  I smiled at her. I was so glad that there was a table between us. She couldn’t tell that I was swelling up at the prospect of another night with her again. I was never complaining when my father summoned me to London again. I had never gone into a game wanting to win before, but this time was different.

  “You have a deal.” She was mine.

  4

  Edwina

  I tried to keep it together sitting across the table from this mysterious stranger. Should I call him that? There was something wrong with me. I was losing my mind. Certifiable. I was going mad.

  It was the watch. Thirty thousand pounds was more than a lot of people made in a year. That kind of money would tide us over for months before things got bad again. I needed it. I knew that was insane, but I couldn’t afford not to take the risk. Gambling was what got us into this situation in the first place, but my options were limited. If there was another way out, I would have tried it already.

  I really should have quit while I was ahead. He was beating me, but my luck could turn yet. It happened all the time. His win was a fluke. He was practically letting me win. He didn’t seem to care at all that I had been beating him. He was just humoring me by agreeing to play. He’d lose. I’d win. I’d get the watch and I wouldn’t have to worry about money for the next few months. Saying I would sleep with him again was all I had left. With any other man I wouldn’t dream of making that kind of offer, but I had a good feeling about this next play. I was taking the money home.

  “Are you sure? Last chance to back out,” he said.

  “Are you?” I said, taking the cards he handed to me.

  We played again. My cards weren’t great. I didn’t let it show. That was fine, they would get better. I barely registered the people around us. We might as well have been all alone. I was completely absorbed in the game because it wasn’t getting better. My cards were getting progressively worse.

  “Oh my god,” I said out loud. He won. Again. I saw him grin and rake his winnings towards him.

  No.

  “It’s been a pleasure madam,” he said.

  No.

  I stared at him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to win.

  “I’m staying right across the street. Shall we?”

  Did I have a choice? I felt myself stand and let him lead me out of the casino. I was in a daze as he paid for our drinks and led me out into the street. I didn’t actually… I didn’t actually think he would win when I offered to go to bed with him. I was after the money and I knew I could leverage our latent attraction to get him to agree to playing again. I had been watching him all night. I knew that he wanted me. If he was trying to hide it, he wasn’t doing a very good job at it.

  The flashbacks came.

  It wasn’t like I could ever forget. That night was one of the most humiliating nights of my life while simultaneously being one of the most sensual. He was a monster in bed, in the best way. He was thorough and so, so sexy. Sex with Russell was never anything to write home about. It was more of an obligation than anything else. I mean, it was more or less him extracting his conjugal rights from me because I was contractually obligated to do it. We never loved each other, and he had other women on the side. When we had sex, it was passionless and over fast. This man was another story completely, one that was about to repeat.

  “Make yourself comfortable,” he said, opening the door to his suite and letting me in ahead of him. I burst into nervous giggles. That was what he said the first time too. I walked in and looked around. The suite was palatial, roomy with rustic furnishings. Far, far out of my budget I thought. It was foolish how much tonight and the night five years ago mirrored each other. I was going to sleep with him again, but I couldn’t be less excited.

  He had given me one of the best nights of my life, but my financial situation was a little more pressing at the moment than the impending repeat performance. I was finding it hard to get sexually excited when I had just lost a huge amount of money to him. Money he didn’t need and which I had no conceivable way of getting back at the moment.

  “Scotch?” he asked. I hadn’t noticed him walking over to the bar to fill two tumblers with the brown liquid. I didn’t particularly want a drink, no. I would have much preferred the money that I lost tonight. He clinked the side of his glass against mine and I took a tentative sip. I knew the way the night was going to end. There was nothing I could do about that but the money was bothering me. Short of asking him outright to give me the cash, what the hell was I supposed to do?

  Please… what was his name?

  I had forgotten the man’s name. I giggled again.

  “What's so funny?” he asked.

  “I don’t remember what your name is,” I said. He laughed, looking down.

  “I thought calling you the Baroness had a nice air of mystery about it.”

  “After all the time we’ve spent together, in and out of bed, maybe it makes sense to know what the other is called.”

  He formally stretched his hand out. “Niall Bridges.” I nodded, shaking his hand.

  “Edwina but everyone calls me Eddy.”

  “Eddy. I like that,” he said. I felt a little ripple through me. Oh my god grow up, I thought. He said he liked your name. You didn’t even pick it yourself. Focus. You’re here to figure out how to get your money back. I needed to figure out something to bet on.

  Was this how gambling addictions started? I didn’t often empathize with Russell but at
the moment I was.

  Just one more game. Unlike him, my life depended on it, god rest his soul. I didn’t begrudge him, but he was the reason I was being reduced to this. I could get out of this hole, all I needed was one more game.

  I took a swig of my drink and took a few leisurely steps around the room.

  “What say you to another game?” I asked. He looked surprised.

  “Again? You enjoy losing, don’t you?”

  I shrugged. “I like to play. I want to bet. On anything, it doesn’t even have to be cards.”

  He seemed pensive. I wasn’t sure whether it was working. Maybe he was done. He had gotten his prize and now all he wanted to do was collect. I scrambled to think of something.

  “I know,” I said, walking up to him. He was almost a head taller than me even though I was in heels. “A friendly wager.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A staring contest.”

  He laughed. A staring contest. I cringed internally. It was the best that I could come up with on short notice.

  “You’re kidding,” he said.

  I shook my head. “Someone sounds scared.”

  “Me? Eddy, you don’t even have anything to bet with,” he pointed out. “Far as I’m concerned, I won already.”

  I took a deep breath. He was kind of tipsy, and he seemed like he was in a good enough mood to go along with me. I had to try.

  “A simple staring contest. If you blink first, I get that fancy watch of yours. If I blink first, you can have my panties.”

  He laughed again. That was a good sign. It meant that he was game. I still had a chance. Whatever came out of tonight, I could go away with a thirty-thousand-pound watch.

  “Okay,” he said. “But before I agree to anything, I'll need to get a look at the goods.”